El Paso may drop suit on emails

The city has spent about $7,000 in its lawsuit against the attorney general over the release of city officials' personal emails, city attorneys said Tuesday.

In an update to City Council representatives and Mayor Oscar Leeser, City Attorney Sylvia Borunda Firth said her office is working with the attorney general to end the matter, possibly by dropping the lawsuit.

The suit filed in December against Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott argued that the city doesn't collect or maintain personal records of city officials, therefore those communications are not subject to the Public Information Act. The suit is in response to an open records request filed last fall by attorney Stephanie Townsend Allala, who Tuesday thanked the mayor and council for addressing the issue.

"I am here today only to honor the spirit of the laws of transparency of government," Allala said. "I am committed for the long term to ensure that El Paso government remains as transparent as possible."

Mayor Leeser recently asked city attorneys to look into dropping the suit.

"We want to look at dropping the lawsuit and getting it over with and moving forward," the mayor said. "We felt that we didn't want to continue to use taxpayer money for this lawsuit."

Firth said the suit was in the discovery phase, but had "slowed down" while the state Legislature considered a number of bills amending the Texas Public Information Act.

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The Legislature passed Senate Bill 1368, which updates the act to say that communications by public officials relating to public business must be disclosed regardless of whether they are written on a public or private email system.

The changes are effective Sept. 1, but it was unclear Tuesday whether the previous requests would fall under that law.

Firth said her office is drafting a resolution or ordinance clarifying procedures for the city's public officials when it comes to communications, acknowledging the change in Texas law.

Details will be presented to the council within three weeks, Firth added.

A proposed ordinance intended to distinguish between public and private information was dropped in March, after concerns that its wording was unclear and went against the intent of City Council to provide more transparency and set guidelines on how city employees should handle public information on their private accounts.

The ordinance narrowly defined official business, which some open government experts and advocates felt would result in withholding of public records.

In a recent training meeting, Firth directed elected city officials not to use their personal emails or other personal forms of communications to conduct city business.

And if they receive emails, texts or other communications related to city business on their personal accounts, Firth said, they are to forward them to and respond from their city-assigned accounts.

"That would solve the issues of the emails, absolutely," said Leeser, who added that he was prompted to ask for a resolution to the lawsuit primarily because he didn't want to spend any more El Paso taxpayers' dollars on the matter.

Cindy Ramirez may be reached at cramirez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6151.

Gas rate increase: The council postponed for one week deciding whether to agree to, fight or negotiate a proposed rate increase by Texas Gas Service. If approved, the proposal would increase residential gas bills by 13 percent, or $18 a year, and commercial bills by 24 percent, or about $60 a year. The council was to vote on the proposed increase Tuesday, but Texas Gas Service granted the city a one-week extension.

Budget and tax rate: City Manager Joyce Wilson presented the proposed fiscal year 2014 budget and tax rate. City officials are proposing a tax increase of about $26 a year on a $100,000 home to support a proposed $784 million budget for fiscal year 2014. The proposed budget amounts to an increase of 3.6 percent over the current fiscal year. Budget workshops begin at 9 a.m. today in Council chambers, City Hall, 300 N. Campbell. A budget and tax rate are expected to be adopted by City Council on Aug. 20.